«The blues is just a funny feelin’, yet people call it a mighty bad disease.» -Lightnin’ Hopkins

It’s common knowledge that the great Damon Runyon’s Hell’s Kitchen, that brawling, infernal neighborhood on the Westside of Gotham he cared for and masterly wrote about, is dead. Not as dead as a doornail as some of those unfortunate souls offed by that notorious Irish gang the Westies wound up to be, but close. So it’s great to hear that this legendary ‘hoods spirit is alive and kicking hard on other turf and is getting an extra life in the firebrand, bluesy songs of Hell’s Kitchen, tonite’s featured band.

And because they’re poetic and Swiss French, they also call themselves «cuisiniers de diable» and their repertoire of reggae, blues, industrial, world, tribal trance and whatever the hell else their devilish craft is labeled. But no doubt, the emphasis is on true blues. That makes their mentor happy (things have been kind of slow since Robert Johnson gave it up).

Hell’s Kitchen are the very brilliant, unruly and bluesy beelzebuben Bernard Monney (guitar, vocals, devils’ chant), Cedric Taillefert (drums, lava’s his fave drink) and Christophe Ryser (bass, and he survives on sulfur). Their latest album is 2011’s ominous opus «Dress To Dig» with the first song titled «A Good End» and the last accordingly «From The Start», dig?

We’re not holding any punches and give it to you with a straight: You’re in for a night of home cooking from hell. And all of it in our kitchen. Hellish, burning blues that goes down like lava soup will be served by the «cuisiniers de diable», bon appetit. On a night Damon Runyon wouldn’t have missed, even if he had to put his own soul on the line for it.